Interindividual differences in intraindividual changes in proactivity during organizational entry: a latent growth modeling approach to understanding newcomer adaptation

Showing commitment or incompetence? When and how newcomers' information seeking elevates (degrades) task-related outcomes

To date, empirical research exploring the complex mechanisms of when and how information seeking from supervisor affects newcomers' task-related outcomes remains in its infancy. With a sample of 394 newcomers and their supervisors, drawing on the conservation of resources theory and professional image construction theory, we proposed and confirmed two paradoxical paths regarding perceptions of professional image construction – concern about impairing competence-image and confidence in improving commitment-image – that connect newcomers' information seeking from supervisor with their emotional exhaustion during socialization and ultimately can elevate and degrade their task-related outcomes, respectively. In addition, we found that supervisors' favorable feedback weakened the relationship between information seeking from supervisor and competence-image impairment concern, whereas it strengthened the linkage between information seeking and commitment-image improvement confidence. This study thus provides a more comprehensive picture for scholars and practitioners.

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Changes in Work Motivation and Employees’ Psychological Health

Organizations strive to motivate employees to thrive at work. However, employees’ motivation is likely to vary over a short period (e.g., a few months) to cope with the routine dynamics of organizations’ activities. These motivation dynamics covary with employees’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in the workplace. Moreover, employees’ psychological health, a multidimensional concept focused on the individual’s well/ill-being simultaneously, changes over time. Using the integrated theoretical frameworks of self-determination theory (SDT) and the hierarchical model of self-determined motivation (H-SDT), this research sought to examine the motivational changes following the dual-path model. In particular, this work sought to unpack the temporal dynamics in employees’ subjective well/ill-beings predicted by the changes in basic needs satisfaction/frustration through autonomous/controlled motivation, while considering the characteristics of people’s general causality orientations (trait-level motivation). Over four months, longitudinal field data were collected from the employees in several private small businesses in the consumer product retail industry. Latent growth modeling (LGM) results supported the positive dual relations between the changes in employees’ psychological health and basic psychological needs satisfaction/frustration, but neither the changes of autonomous/controlled work motivation nor the indirect change paths via autonomous/controlled work motivation were significant. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. Limitations and possible future research directions to further this line of research on the dynamic of work motivation were also summarized.

An Alpha, Beta and Gamma Approach to Evaluating Occupational Health Organizational Interventions: Learning from the Measurement of Work-Family Conflict Change

Given the rapid growth of intervention research in the occupational health sciences and related fields (e.g. work-family), we propose that occupational health scientists adopt an “alpha, beta, gamma” change approach when evaluating intervention efficacy. Interventions can affect absolute change in constructs directly (alpha change), changes in the scales used to assess change (beta change) or redefinitions of the construct itself (gamma change). Researchers should consider the extent to which they expect their intervention to affect each type of change and select evaluation approaches accordingly. We illustrate this approach using change data from groups of IT professionals and health care workers participating in the STAR intervention, designed by the Work Family Health Network. STAR was created to effect change in employee work-family conflict via supervisor family-supportive behaviors and schedule control. We hypothesize that it will affect change via all three change approaches—gamma, beta, and alpha. Using assessment techniques from measurement equivalence approaches, we find results consistent with some gamma and beta change in the IT company due to the intervention; our results suggest that not accounting for such change could affect the evaluation of alpha change. We demonstrate that using a tripartite model of change can help researchers more clearly specify intervention change targets and processes. This will enable the assessment of change in a way that has stronger fidelity between the theories used and the outcomes of interest. Our research has implications for how to assess change using a broader change framework, which employs measurement equivalence approaches in order to advance the design and deployment of more effective interventions in occupational settings.

For Better and Worse: How Proactive Personality Alters the Strain Responses to Challenge and Hindrance Stressors

Employees with a proactive personality tend to show exceptional initiative and perseverance, suggesting that they are relatively impervious to stressors. Yet some evidence suggests that proactive personality may exacerbate the effect of stressors on strain. In this study, we clarify these conflicting ideas by systematically distinguishing between different types of chronic work stressors. Integrating the conservation-of-resources model and the challenge–hindrance stressor framework, we suggest that employees with more proactive personalities are especially sensitive to the extent to which chronic work stressors are amenable to their resource investments. Specifically, we hypothesize that, for more proactive employees, challenge stressors (opportunities more amenable to resource investment) lead to less strain (i.e., emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions) but also that hindrance stressors (demands less amenable to proactive expectations of achievement) lead to relatively more strain. We further propose perceived organizational support as a mediator of these interactive effects wherein challenging opportunities are interpreted by proactive employees as particularly indicative of high support and hindering demands as particularly indicative of low support, ultimately leading to lower and higher perceptions of strain, respectively. A three-wave survey of 256 architects generally supports these hypotheses: the effects of challenge stressors on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions were significantly attenuated and the effects of hindrance stressors on these outcomes were significantly exacerbated for more proactive people. These effects were mediated (partially for exhaustion, fully for turnover intentions) by perceived support. Follow-up analysis demonstrates that this interactive effect extends to turnover behavior 2.5 years later, fully mediated by perceived support.

Individual differences in professional sport narrative experience during basketball players club mutation

Due to the growing competitive challenges, athletes' mutation between clubs has emerged an area of interest within career development. However, studies aimed at analysing this specific process of adaptation to clubs that lead to success or failure in such career mutations are seldom. We developed a comprehensive understanding of the psychological mutation processes to clubs using a narrative level of McAdams’ model of personality. The qualitative method approach used in the Big Three narrative framework (McLean et al., 2019) and good life stories standards (McAdams, 1996) were applied to uncover the components of the narratives of twenty professional basketball players during mutation between clubs. The current study sort to test the links between these narrative components and athlete successful club to club mutation (CCM-successful). On average, the results showed that the participants experienced richer narratives as compared to general population t (17.08) = -1.48, p < .05. Narratives in the CCM-successful were also richer (Mean = 2.83, SD = .16) as compared to narratives of the CCM-unsuccessful (Mean = 1.63, SD, = .36). The overall club mutation success correlated positively with exploratory processing, meaning-making and agency narrative components. These results suggest that when athletes develop active attitudes seeking for solution and sharing their experience with others, they may build the conditions of adaptability that corresponds to a successful outcome for their mutation. The participants exhibited flexible and proactive behaviours which rendered possible the appropriation of the elements in the environment that favour a positive experience of mutation.

How entrepreneurial team heterogeneity impacts decision-making performance? An input-process-output approach

Purpose

Existing studies mostly rely on the static characteristics of team members, and there is still a lack of empirical investigation on how entrepreneurial team members make decisions through dynamic team process and how team members’ cognition influences team decision-making. The purpose of this study is to validate how entrepreneurial team heterogeneity affects team decision-making performance from the perspective of dynamic team process.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the theory of input-process-output model, this study proposed and examined the mediating role of team interaction as well as the moderating role of proactive socialization tactics in the relationship between entrepreneurial team heterogeneity and decision-making performance. Based on a sample of 162 entrepreneurial teams that include pairing superiors and subordinates, hierarchical regressions and moderated mediation tests were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The research results show that the heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams is positively correlated with both team interaction and decision-making performance. Team interaction plays a mediating role between entrepreneurial team heterogeneity and decision-making performance; information seeking of proactive socialization tactics moderates the impact of entrepreneurial team heterogeneity on team interaction.

Originality/value

Contributing to the literature on entrepreneurial team decision-making performance, this study identifies that proactive socialization tactics with a high level of information seeking can help entrepreneurial team members respond to environmental and organizational changes more effectively during team development and increase the effectiveness of team interaction. This finding helps us better understand the mechanism and context under which entrepreneurial heterogeneity may enhance the team’s decision-making performance.

Ethical leadership and organizational commitment: the dual perspective of social exchange and empowerment

Purpose

Given recent prominent ethical scandals (e.g. Tesla, Uber) and the increasing demand for ethical management, the importance of business ethics has recently surged. One area that needs further research regards how ethical leaders can foster followers’ organizational commitment. Drawing upon social exchange theory, the current research proposes that ethical leadership relates to follower affective and normative commitment through perceived organizational support (POS). Moreover, based on self-determination theory, we expected follower psychological empowerment to positively moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and commitment components.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using a three-wave study among employees from multiple organizations (N = 297) in Canada. Structural equations modeling and bootstrapping analyses were applied to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results showed that ethical leadership was positively related to follower affective and normative commitment through POS. Furthermore, the relationship between ethical leadership and POS was stronger at high levels of empowerment. This moderating effect extended to the indirect relationship between ethical leadership and commitment components.

Originality/value

This study counts among the few investigations that have examined the mechanisms linking ethical leadership to followers’ organizational commitment and boundary conditions associated with this relationship. Moreover, our findings were obtained while controlling for transformational leadership, which highlights the incremental validity of ethical leadership.

The Role of Change in the Relationships Between Leader-Member Exchange/Coworker Exchange and Newcomer Performance: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach

This study examines whether and how the qualities of newcomers’ interpersonal relationships [i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX) and coworker exchange (CWX)] relate to their initial performance and how changes in the qualities of these relationships relate to the changes in performance. To test a latent growth model, we collected data from 230 newcomers at six time points over a 6-week period. The results showed that LMX quality is positively related to initial newcomer performance; however, changes in LMX quality are not statistically significantly related to changes in newcomer performance. In contrast, an increase in CWX quality is positively related to newcomer performance improvement, but the initial quality of CWX does not predict newcomer performance. Furthermore, newcomers’ psychological entitlement moderates the relationship between LMX quality and newcomer performance; newcomers’ conscientiousness moderates the relationship between increases in CWX quality and improvements in newcomer performance. The findings increase our understanding of the newcomer exchange relationship-performance link over time and suggest that future newcomer socialization research explore the initial level of and the changes in these relationships simultaneously.

Beyond Justice Perceptions: The Role of Interpersonal Justice Trajectories and Social Class in Perceived Legitimacy of Authority Figures

There is considerable evidence that the experience of justice is associated with perceived legitimacy of authority, but there has been no research about this association when considering past rather than current fairness. Based on the fairness heuristic theory, we tested the hypothesis that interpersonal justice trajectories positively affect perceived legitimacy of the authority; we also tested whether social class moderated this effect. Community residents (N = 111; 54 women) rated the authority's fairness on 16 consecutive weeks and rated perceived legitimacy on the 16th week. The results of latent growth modeling showed that the trajectory of interpersonal justice scores leading up to the final week significantly predicted perceived legitimacy, regardless of the current experience of interpersonal fairness. Tests of moderation showed that the legitimacy perceptions of individuals of lower subjective social class were significantly affected by interpersonal justice trajectories, whereas this was not the case among individuals of higher subjective social class. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for research on perceived legitimacy and justice, as well as their implications for understanding social class.

From Feedback Seeking to Psychological Attachment, the Mediating Role of Adaptive Performance in Perceived Obstruction Context

Based on proactivity literature, feedback seeking behavior is generally used throughout an individual's career to enable better adaptation to the work environment. However, it has recently been shown that declining levels of feedback seeking behavior may result in decreased psychological attachment over time. This study aims to explore whether individual adaptivity represents a mechanism through which feed-back seeking affects psychological attachment (i.e., well-being involvement and withdrawal). In addition, the interaction effect of organizational obstruction between individual adaptivity and psychological attachment was examined. Based on three-wave survey data obtained from 273 participants from French organizations, a moderated mediation model was tested using structural equation modeling. Results confirmed that adaptive performance mediated positively the relationship between feedback-seeking and well-being involvement and negatively with withdrawal. Moreover, perceived organizational obstruction moderated negatively the relationship between adaptive performance and withdrawal, and positively that with well-being. These results shed new light on the relationship between proactivity (i.e., feedback seeking behavior) and adaptive performance, but also on the positive short-term contribution of successful adaptation in a perceived obstructive organizational context. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for human resource management are discussed.

Exploring adaptability and proactivity across cultural contexts

Behavioral performance indicators linked to traits of adaptability and proactivity have been increasingly promoted in workplace management initiatives as predictors of high performance and employee potential (Grant and Ashford, 2008; Griffin et al., 2007). While these behaviors have been found to be helpful heuristics in Western workplace research samples, additional insight would help managers understand how they vary across geographical regions amidst rapidly expanding multinational markets. This study aimed to examine the relationship between workplace performance behaviors of adaptability and proactivity across diverse geographical regions, including North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Using data gathered from professional employees from global companies, the study sample consisted of 3,860 participants working across 15 countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, and the United States). The results indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between work performance adaptability and proactivity across countries, though a much smaller effect across groupings based on subsets of high versus low economic gross domestic product (GDP). Implications for talent management approaches to better develop these constructs cross-culturally are discussed.

Help Comes from Understanding: The Positive Effect of Communication Visibility on Employee Helping Behavior

Extant research focuses on the antecedents of employee helping behavior, but the role of social technologies in enhancing employee helping behavior remains understudied. The purpose of our research is to investigate the relationship between communication visibility and employee helping behavior. Drawing on both communication visibility theory and social cognitive theory, we propose that the association between communication visibility and helping behavior is mediated by employee psychological state assessed by a cognitive state variable: trust in coworkers. Further, we also propose that proactive personality moderates the positive effect of trust in coworkers on employee helping behavior. We examined our hypothesized relationships using 149 employees collected in a field experiment in China. As hypothesized, we find that trust in coworkers mediates the relationship between communication visibility and helping behavior. Moreover, proactive personality strengthens the effectiveness of communication visibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice.

Double-edged effects of ethical leadership in the development of Greater China salespeople's emotional exhaustion and long-term customer relationships

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present how ethical leadership has a double-edged effect to influence emotional exhaustion and long-term customer relationship developments of employees in a sales management context through a latent growth model (LGM).

Design/methodology/approach

To test the LGM, data were collected by surveying 407 salespeople of a retail travel agency with 814 customers in Greater China at multiple points over an eight-month period.

Findings

This study found that, as salespeople perceived more ethical leadership at Time 1, they were more likely to show increases in the work engagement development that increased the service performance development and increased the work–family conflict development over time. In addition, increases in service performance development influenced increases in customer relationship development and increases in work–family conflict development also influenced the emotional exhaustion development.

Originality/value

These findings help managers understand that enabling salespeople to use their full capabilities to their work by ethical leadership may bring not only high service performance but also negative factors that erode salespeople’s well-being.

Can ethical leadership hinder sales performance? A limited resource perspective of job embeddedness

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to borrow from a limited resource view of job embeddedness to argue that ethical leadership can hurt salespeople’s growth of sales performance by a latent growth model.

Design/methodology/approach

This work surveyed 825 salespeople in Greater China at three points over six months to test the latent growth model.

Findings

The findings reveal that as salespeople perceive more ethical leadership at the initial point, they may show more increases in job embeddedness behavior development that lead to decreases in social capital and human capital behavior development, which consequently decreases sales performance over time.

Originality/value

These findings unearth a novel idea that ethical leadership may erode growth of sales performance over time.

Not just good for her: A temporal analysis of the dynamic relationship between representation of women and collective employee turnover

Many organizations aim to increase the representation of women in their workforce, yet such efforts are often challenged by women’s relatively higher propensity to leave a job compared to men. Overlooked so far has been the temporal relationship between the representation of women and an organization’s collective employee turnover. We suggest that a substantive and rapid increase in the representation of women positively affects women and results in positive spillover effects for men, leading to a decrease in collective turnover. In our theoretical development, we explain how higher representation of women is associated with higher job embeddedness for all employees, which results in a subsequent decrease in collective employee turnover. We use latent curve model (LCM) analysis to examine a population of 499 organizations over a 14-year time span, and find support for our hypotheses. We suggest opportunities for future research and offer implications for practicing managers.

Furthering Proactivity and Career Adaptability Among University Students: Test of Intervention

This study was based on a theory-driven training course, Staying Relevant. It aimed at developing university students’ proactive personality and career adaptability resources (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) with the assumption that 6 months later, they would demonstrate appropriate adapting responses (career planning, career decision-making self-efficacy, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy). A randomized control trial, the study used the pretest–posttest–posttest one control group ( n = 49) and one experimental group ( n = 49) design. Compared to the control group, results indicated that the training group had higher proactivity and career adaptability resources immediately after the training and 6 months later as well as showed higher adapting responses 6 months later. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of these results are also discussed. The study concluded that the Staying Relevant course embodying an eclectic mix of intervention best practices could be successful in facilitating a smooth university-to-work transition.

Medical student changes in self-regulated learning during the transition to the clinical environment

BACKGROUND

Self-regulated learning (SRL), which is learners' ability to proactively select and use different strategies to reach learning goals, is associated with academic and clinical success and life-long learning. SRL does not develop automatically in the clinical environment and its development during the preclinical to clinical learning transition has not been quantitatively studied. Our study aims to fill this gap by measuring SRL in medical students during the transitional period and examining its contributing factors.

METHODS

Medical students were invited to complete a questionnaire at the commencement of their first clinical year (T0), and 10 weeks later (T1). The questionnaire included the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and asked about previous clinical experience. Information about the student's background, demographic characteristics and first clinical rotation were also gathered.

RESULTS

Of 118 students invited to participate, complete paired responses were obtained from 72 medical students (response rate 61%). At T1, extrinsic goal orientation increased and was associated with gender (males were more likely to increase extrinsic goal orientation) and type of first attachment (critical care and community based attachments, compared to hospital ward based attachments). Metacognitive self-regulation decreased at T1 and was negatively associated with previous clinical experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Measurable changes in self-regulated learning occur during the transition from preclinical learning to clinical immersion, particularly in the domains of extrinsic goal orientation and metacognitive self-regulation. Self-determination theory offers possible explanations for this finding which have practical implications and point the way to future research. In addition, interventions to promote metacognition before the clinical immersion may assist in preserving SRL during the transition and thus promote life-long learning skills in preparation for real-world practice.

It Takes a (Virtual) Village: Exploring the Role of a Career Community to Support Sensemaking As a Proactive Socialization Practice

Scholars have long advocated for individuals to play a more proactive role during organizational entry rather than relying on institutionally led processes. The primary benefit being that the newcomer moves from passive recipient, dependent on the institution to highlight relevant information, to active agent with self-determined sources and methods to aid in adjustment. A virtual career community made up of 12 first year business faculty members was created to provide such a self-determined source of support during the transition from doctoral studies to full-time assistant professorship. After the entry period (1 academic year), the interactions in this community were used as data for a phenomenon driven research study. The results illustrate how a virtual career community could be used as a proactive socialization tool by encouraging sensemaking amongst first year faculty peers. The sensemaking process consists of perceived contrasts and tensions, followed by positive and negative self-disclosures, community feedback, and the experience of cognitive-behavioral shifts. The findings also expand the proactive use of external referents during organizational entry, which previously had only looked at friends and family members of the newcomer.

Data Analysis and Modeling Longitudinal Processes

This article presents a nontechnical overview of the major data analysis techniques for modeling longitudinal processes, with an explicit focus on their advantages and disadvantages as tools for drawing inferences about different specific aspects of change over time. It is argued that traditional longitudinal analysis techniques offer limited ways of addressing many specific questions about change. Recent advances in latent variable techniques, when adequately driven by theory, design, and measurement, offer a unified and flexible framework for addressing such questions.

Longitudinal Modeling with Randomly and Systematically Missing Data: A Simulation of Ad Hoc, Maximum Likelihood, and Multiple Imputation Techniques

For organizational research on individual change, missing data can greatly reduce longitudinal sample size and potentially bias parameter estimates. Within the structural equation modeling framework, this article compares six missing data techniques (MDTs): listwise deletion, pairwise deletion, stochastic regression imputation, the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, full information maximization likelihood (FIML), and multiple imputation (MI). The rationale for each technique is reviewed, followed by Monte Carlo analysis based on a threewave simulation of organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Parameter estimates and standard errors for each MDT are contrasted with complete-data estimates, under three mechanisms of missingness (completely random, random, and nonrandom) and three levels of missingness (25%, 50%, and 75%; all monotone missing). Results support maximum likelihood and MI approaches, which particularly outperform listwise deletion for parameters involving many recouped cases. Better standard error estimates are derived from FIML and MI techniques. All MDTs perform worse when data are missing nonrandomly.

Methods of Ecological Momentary Assessment in Organizational Research

Although ecological momentary assessment and experience sampling methods have been in use in other areas of the social and medical sciences for many years, organizational researchers have not taken advantage of these techniques. To rectify this situation, the authors examine the benefits and difficulties of ecological momentary assessment and offer suggestions for how it can be used effectively in organizations. In addition, the authors discuss the analysis of these data from a multilevel framework and place particular emphasis on procedures that examine the temporal nature of momentary data.

An Examination of Firm, Industry, and Time Effects on Performance Using Random Coefficients Modeling

The strategic management literature is unclear about how firm and industry effects influence performance, and the analysis of longitudinal data therein continues to be problematic. The authors analyze longitudinal data using hierarchical linear modeling to illustrate a random coefficients modeling alternative for examining firm performance. This approach allows researchers to explicitly model different conceptual approaches to testing change in performance over time and model predictor variables and cross-level interactions at multiple levels of analysis, and it also allows for investigation of time series errors. The results have implications for the strategic management field's goal of understanding multilevel determinants of firm performance over time.

The Adequacy of Repeated-Measures Regression for Multilevel Research

The authors assess the suitability of repeated-measures regression (RMR) to analyze multilevel data in four popular multilevel research designs by comparing results of RMR analyses to results of analyses using techniques known to produce correct results in these designs. The findings indicate that RMR may be suitable for only a small number of situations and that repeated-measures ANOVA, multivariate repeated-measures ANOVA, and multilevel modeling may be better suited to analyze multilevel data under most circumstances. The authors conclude by offering recommendations regarding the appropriateness of the different techniques given the different research designs.

Problems With Item Parceling for Confirmatory Factor Analytic Tests of Measurement Invariance

Combining items into parcels in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) can improve model estimation and fit. Because adequate model fit is imperative for CFA tests of measurement invariance, parcels have frequently been used. However, the use of parcels as indicators in a CFA model can have serious detrimental effects on tests of measurement invariance. Using simulated data with a known lack of invariance, the authors illustrate how models using parcels as indicator variables erroneously indicate that measurement invariance exists much more often than do models using items as indicators. Moreover, item-by-item tests of measurement invariance were often more informative than were tests of the entire parameter matrices.

Growth Modeling Using Random Coefficient Models: Model Building, Testing, and Illustrations

In this article, the authors illustrate how random coefficient modeling can be used to develop growth models for the analysis of longitudinal data. In contrast to previous discussions of random coefficient models, this article provides step-by-step guidance using a model comparison framework. By approaching the modeling this way, the authors are able to build off a regression foundation and progressively estimate and evaluate more complex models. In the model comparison framework, the article illustrates the value of using likelihood tests to contrast alternative models (rather than the typical reliance on tests of significance involving individual parameters), and it provides code in the open-source language R to allow readers to replicate the results. The article concludes with practical guidelines for estimating growth models.

The Role of Job and Family Involvement for Satisfaction in Job and Family

Abstract. Job and family involvement have been shown to have important implications for job and family satisfaction. While most theoretical considerations and research imply that each type of involvement will be beneficial for participation and satisfaction in each particular domain, their joint impact is not well understood. Moreover, little is known of how overall involvement may predict changes in job and family satisfaction across time. This study empirically examines the effect of both involvement in job and family on job and family satisfaction trajectories. Self-report data were collected from 460 employees at three time points over a 12-month period. Using latent growth curve modeling, results demonstrate that people who are highly involved overall (i.e., have high levels in job and family involvement) show higher initial scores in latent job and family satisfaction trajectories, compared to people who have very little involvement. In turn, people who are highly involved overall show a decline in family satisfaction across time. Our results provide insight into the beneficial and detrimental effects that might arise when employees place high importance on both job and family involvement. The findings also suggest that research should address the joint operation of the two types of involvement in order to predict changes in job and family satisfaction over time.